While on maternity leave in 1998, internist Sarah Hoffmann decided that rather than going back to her Kansas City, Missouri, hospital job, she'd make cheese instead. When she hired college student Jacqueline Smith to babysit, she gained a business partner to boot. "We share the same values," says Hoffmann. Adds Smith: "We both romanticized trading reality for farm life!"

FIRST STEPS Turns out the fine soil on the 25 acres Hoffmann bought to house her family and Green Dirt Farm couldn't support cows, so the two women shifted to sheep, starting with just six ewes. They introduced their cheeses at a farmers' market in 2008.

TASTE OF SUCCESS Signing on with a distributor helped the brand land dozens of accounts, including Whole Foods. The duo even appeared on Anthony Bourdain's No Reservations.

Neighbors let Jacqueline Smith (pictured, left) and Sarah Hoffmann graze their flock on unused land (ewes who eat a variety of prairie grasses produce more flavorful cheeses), and the company's Woolly Rind and Dirt Lover cheeses (from $16.95 for 5 oz.; greendirtfarm.com) have won accolades. "Our big-picture goal? To help repair and change the world through our everyday work," says Hoffmann.